Fumigant Related Illnesses: Washington State’s Five Year Experience

Details

• Personal Author:
  Burgess JL ; Keifer MC ; Morrissey B ; Robertson WO
• Description:
  Exposure to fumigants may have severe or persistent health effects. Washington State's fumigant-related illnesses were reviewed to better understand the circumstances surrounding exposure and resultant health effects. Fumigant-related illnesses reported to and investigated by the Washington State Department of Health were reviewed. Illnesses considered by Department of Health to be definitely, probably, or possibly related to pesticide exposure were then analyzed. From 1992-1996, 39 (3.3%) of 1192 definite, probable, or possible cases of pesticide-related illnesses involved exposures to fumigants. Fumigant exposures during this period were to aluminum phosphide (15), methyl bromide (12), metam-sodium (9), and zinc phosphide (3). Symptoms included respiratory problems and eye and/or skin irritation for the majority of exposures, and no deaths were reported. The nature of exposure for these cases included exposure to applicators (17), reentry into a fumigated structure (9), improper storage or disposal (6), reentry into treated agricultural fields (4), drift from treated fields (2), and other (1). Review of fumigant exposures should be used to prevent future events through continued enforcement of established regulations and training of applicators. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Eye Foreign Bodies Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Skin
• Keywords:
  Eye-irritants Fumes Fumigants Occupational-exposure Occupational-health Respiratory-system-disorders Skin-irritants
• ISSN:
  0731-3810
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Arizona ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  7-14
• Volume:
  38
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20031176
• Citation:
  J Toxicol Clin Toxicol 2000 Jan; 38(1):7-14
• Email:
  jburgess@u.arizona.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2000
• Performing Organization:
  University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19950701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Toxicology: Clinical Toxicology
• End Date:
  20060630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ef6b93abd48a0ebdf240db511d9980d3cac3c5763c85b4ab6a3a0d02719d09139a28a74e15030bed7250b03bd6ff9cd2b63efa25baa62808e3e2551fc4c29829
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/191504/cdc_191504_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 251.38 KB ]